


richie tozier in conversation with beverley marsh: the internet's favourite funnyman interviewed by fashion's best comeback queen

by 17826



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Bisexual Beverly Marsh, Bisexual Richie Tozier, Childhood Trauma, Gen, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, InStyle Man of Style Award, Magazine-atypical swearing, Metafiction, Past Drug Addiction, The Healing Power of Carly Rae Jepsen, i-D Magazine, interview format, they talk about heavy subjects but in pretty light ways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 04:43:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21238379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/17826/pseuds/17826
Summary: Richie Tozier is the Emmy winning comedian and writer taking comedy by the throat after his return from rehab. Beverley Marsh is the world's new favourite designer who got her mojo back by revamping her life and her label. To mark the release of Richie's hotly anticipated new comedy specialMotherl*ver, they talk fashion, love and childhood trauma.





	richie tozier in conversation with beverley marsh: the internet's favourite funnyman interviewed by fashion's best comeback queen

**Author's Note:**

> pro tip: the links actually work

**richie tozier in conversation with beverley marsh: the internet's favourite funnyman interviewed by fashion's best comeback queen**  
To mark the release of _Motherl*ver_, Richie Tozier and Beverley Marsh talk fashion, love, and childhood trauma.

By i-D magazine | 30 October 2019, 1:47pm

_Richie Tozier is the Emmy winning comedian and writer taking comedy by the throat after his return from rehab. Beverley Marsh is the world's new favourite designer who got her mojo back by revamping her life and her label. To mark the release of Richie's hotly anticipated new comedy special _Motherl*ver_, they discuss navigating new lives, living with childhood trauma, and how to be creative. [Click here to order the issue.](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBwvWeE7TqebI-0AFSkx2z75aCG1a-ycj)_

When Richie Tozier first burst onto the comedy scene in the early noughties, an explosion of dick jokes and so-bad-they're-good impressions, it wasn't his material that made him stand out. Shunned by critics, Richie gained his cult following by playing the campus circuit without break for nearly a decade and maintaining a style of delivery that had you in stitches despite yourself. As the teenagers who loved him grew into adults, and the internet became something for more than just nerds in their mom's basement, Richie was firmly cemented in his place as comedy's best black sheep.

After a handful of recorded shows and a three year stint as host of the Film Independent Spirit Awards, Richie went on to take a few small but scene-stealing roles in offbeat comedies and family animations, but it was his role in 2018's Oscar darling _The Unanswered Question _that really catapulted Richie into the realms of fame.

Following a very public breakdown and subsequent disappearance from public life in 2016, no one could have predicted Richie's casting in Karyn Kusama's irreverent biopic of Leonard Bernstein, in which he played Tom Cothran, tragic lover to Steve Carell's Bernstein. With a script both hilarious and heart breaking - and for which Richie received a co-writers credit - the film offered a vibrant and honest take on a life lived simultaneously in and out of the closet, mixing period-typical design with modern styling and cinematography to hold our own society to account for the ongoing issues that Bernstein had faced in his time.

As Tom, Richie gave a searing performance, modulating between fierce passion and quiet heartbreak as the object of his affections tries to build them a life together and is thwarted by the societal pressures of his public persona, all building to the climactic moment of the film where they stage their wedding in a San Francisco concert hall. During the press tour for _The Unanswered Question_, Richie himself came out as bisexual and revealed he had recently married a childhood friend.

Off the back of his successful return to acting, Richie went on his first tour in almost five years. _Egosyntoniac_ marked a turning point in Richie's career as both the first show comprised of only self-penned material, and the first to cover Richie's real personal life, which he reportedly spends mostly stopping his husband from micromanaging their dog's diet suppliments. In fact, an extended joke in the show compared this to the glamorous life he would have had with the girlfriend mentioned in his previous work, now revealed to be fictitious, and Richie makes a refreshing change from the old traditions of stand-up by expressing genuine joy in his partner's neurotic tendencies. It was this new approach that finally shot him out of niche status and into the Emmys, winning him the award for Writing in a Variety Special.

_Motherl*ver_ continues this burst of honesty, covering his several trips to rehab, his therapist, and his experience uncovering repressed childhood memories, the majority of which involve his school friend group that counted among its members writer William Denbrough, architect Ben Hanscom, and one Beverley Marsh. They also include experiences with homophobia and a run in with a serial killer. "But don't worry," he jokes in the opening bit, "there's your mom jokes too." Released early next year on Netflix, _Motherl*ver_ is perfectly positioned within the current cultural zeitgeist to take the internet by storm.

Richie's fandom online extends far and wide, his irreverence attracting both millennials and gen z-ers alike in such a way that builds to the kind of enthusiasm rarely extended to the comedians of traditional media: 2.5 million Twitter followers, YouTube compilations of him laughing, and a blog called _[Let's Buy Richie Tozier Some New Clothes](https://www.letsbuybillhadersomenewclothes.tumblr.com/)_. This is the kind of success any agent would tell you was impossible after having seen the footage of a shaking standup comic being booed off the stage in 2016, and yet Richie seems to take it all in stride, easily playing off any kind of reference to his chequered past.

Next year is shaping up to be a busy one for him, with his new tour, the release of his television writing debut _Lighter_ on HBO, and a starring role in Pixar's upcoming _Newt_. But as he gears up to take _Motherl*ver _on the road, Richie still has time for coffee with an old friend...

**Beverley Marsh: Hello, Dickie To-zee-ay, come in, Dickie To-zee-ay.**  
**Richie Tozier:** Why hello, Mighty Mrs Marsh, this is Dickie To-zee-ay reporting for duty.

**B: Hello, Dickie. I'd like to begin by congratulating you again on your [InStyle _Man of Style_ award](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DPFGadfUd-G5VH2Gndrif2f3Ejqcp06WePiczTxcpTQ/edit?usp=sharing), mazel tov once more.**  
** R:** Todah rabah.

**B: I know everyone keeps asking you this, but how did it actually feel when you found out you were getting the award, like for real?**  
** R:** Oh, for real? Like real talk?

**B: Yeah, like, for real for real.**  
** R:** Oh, for real for real. Well, my agent forwarded me the email with only the words 'presented without comment' added, and I was waiting for my daughter to get out of school at the time, so I was in the playground or whatever, and I was, like, 100% sure it was just my husband pranking me. So I called him up and said, like, 'very funny, asshole, I get the hint, I'll stop wearing crocs to the bodega'.

**B: You would never stop wearing crocs to the bodega.**  
** R:** I really wouldn't, except for the fact that I have been too famous to go into a bodega for, like, years at this point, baby. It's a tragedy, I miss the shitty pepperoni sticks. Anyway, he didn't know what I was talking about, and then I forwarded the email to him, and checked with my agent, and texted our friend Stan to see if he had signed me up for Punk'd, but... Yeah, then I had to accept that it was real, I guess. I went through all five stages of grief and the first three of joy, I think, in those ten minutes. How was it for you?

**B: Oh, I pioneered the sixth stage of grief, it's like suadade but for the life I had before you'd gotten that email because I knew you'd never live it down. I mean, I found out you'd won because you personally requested that I be the one to give you the award.**  
** R:** Yeah, of fucking course I did, it's the greatest and most important moment of my life, I needed my least fashionable friend there to make me look good by comparison.

**B: Fuck you, Rich!**  
** R:** Fuck you!

**B: Jesus, that was meant to be a softball start to the interview, we've already devolved into cursing like sailors, they are so gonna regret asking us to do this.**  
** R:** They knew what they were getting into. Or they'll just cut us out.

**B: That would serve us right. Anyway, here's my first real question: do you attribute your recent success to your own hard work or simply a blip in a cultural moment that allowed you to capitalize on the gay rights movement and get rich quick?**  
** R:** Well, first let me say, that that's a super organic and professional way to direct the flow of conversation, good job, Bev. And then I would say that that's a trick question. I would attribute my success to neither of those things; I owe it all to the cosmic turtle that created the universe, and I mean that literally.

**B: Okay, well, it's not a trick question, but it might be a false dichotomy.**  
** R:** If you want the real answer, I'd say that I mostly attribute my recent success to a second and more catching trip to rehab a few years ago. You know this; in 2016, that whole breakdown I had, all of us going home, that triggered a lot of stuff for all of us, I think, and for me that manifested itself in a lot of ways but one of those ways was a big return to the whole cocaine-and-insomnia cocktail. I actually went blind for a few days before my agent drove me to rehab.

**B: I remember it being on the news when you went to rehab [in 2014]. Why didn't it stick the first time?**  
** R:** Oh, you know me, obsessive personality, I'll try anything twice. I guess I didn't have a lot going on in my life back then that kept my interest, so the drugs were a lot more attractive. Now I got a dog, a daughter, writer's block... I'm not trying to make substance abuse sound like a hobby, I don't want to trivialize it, I just don't think rehab worked the first time 'cause I was so understimulated that I ended up relapsing just to try and treat my own ADHD. It's something dumb like, you're 4 times more likely to have substance abuse problems as an adult with ADHD than as someone without it.

**B: And you're, like, the most ADHD person I've ever met.**  
** R**: Why, thank you. I feel like I'm back on stage, accepting that shiny award all over again.

**B: And how hard have you found the transition into your sober life? Like you said, there's a family now and a dog and a career change...**  
** R:** I wouldn't call it a career change exactly, more a shift, but, yeah, I guess the writing is new. Or, the publication of my writing is new, I mean, but yeah, it's been weird. Weird but good. Honestly, I've never actually been so happy before, like I wake up early now just because I want to start the day. I've never done that before. It's like a loss of identity except I'm so fucking stoked about it. Weird but good. But you must be the same, with your triumphant return to haute couture?

**B: I don't do haute couture but thanks for trying. Yeah, weird but good just about sums it up, I guess. I know what you mean about wanting to start the day, [my partner] Ben has always been an early riser.**  
** R:** And do you give him a hand with that? 'Cause if not, I'd be delighted to give the situation my full attention.

**B: You're a married man now, Rich, Christ!**  
** R:** Eddie would understand.

**B: I think Ben would prefer Eddie's help, but I might only be saying that to torture you. Anyway, as I was saying, weird but good is a nice phrase; since the opening of the Marsh foundation [for victims of domestic abuse] I've tried to be more candid about my own personal history, all of which you know, so you understand what I mean when I say that the relationships I'm used to, both professionally and personally, have all involved walking on eggshells and trying to please volatile men who hold my life in their hands. It has been such a welcome change to finally feel safe in my own home and to feel in control at work, but I'm just not used to it yet.**  
** R**: I'm so glad you get that chance. And, with the foundation and that, do you feel a responsibility to be something like a spokesperson for women, and men and people generally, who are survivors of domestic abuse?

**B: Shit, yeah, I definitely do. I'm not sure how much of that is self-imposed versus external, but every time an interviewer asks me about it, I feel like there's two sides of me at war, like obviously anything I can do to help abuse victims, I should do, but then also half of me wants to just crawl under a rock and never say anything again because what if I say something wrong?**  
** R:** Yeah, I know the feeling. But speaking as someone who's built a career out of saying the wrong thing, I think people can tell when you're trying to do a good thing and they'll be a lot more understanding than you think. I mean, you're always gonna get bad faith assholes, but they'd come along even if you said nothing, so screw 'em.

**B: How much did your coming out affect the number of assholes in your Twitter mentions?**  
** R:** I mean, there were definitely more of them, but there were also definitely more nice and supportive people too, so I guess it probably evened out. I don't know. I turned Twitter notifications off during the _Unanswered_ press junket and just never turned them back on.

**B: Do you feel the pressure to be a spokesman for the LGBTQ community now?**  
** R:** Sort of, but not as much as you'd think. Maybe that's just because I'm dense as your aunt's meatloaf so it's hard to get to me, but I think it finally feels like the industry is moving towards recognizing the importance of diverse viewpoints and so another cis white guy isn't really breaking any moulds anymore. Which is absolutely a good thing, I'd be a terrible spokesperson, but also kinda injures my ego. I thought once I'd skipped down the aisle into Eddie's arms, I'd be getting the Nobel peace prize within the week...

**B: It certainly feels like a ceasefire to those of us who knew you guys as kids.**  
** R:** Bullshit, there's no ceasefire, we're just working together now. Us versus the world. I've never pulled a punch in my life.

**B: Yeah, I think we have a mutual friend with a lump in his nose that attests to that.**  
** R:** I stand by what I did. I accept that that doesn't exactly make me a stellar role model for the kids though, and besides, my gay knowledge is woefully lacking, being as I am, a late bloomer in terms of acknowledging my sexuality. It would be like a man who never went to boy scouts trying to captain a ship; he doesn't even understand how to knot the rope.

**B: In _Egosyntoniac_, you had that bit about how you repressed your attraction to men so hard that you threw up after watching _Brokeback Mountain_ and didn't understand why, so you started worrying you might be a secret homophobe. I've told you this before but I want it on the record, I think that's the best joke you've ever done because it's the perfect balance of tragic to hilarious, and I truly love your Heath Ledger voice. It's the only impression of yours that actually sounds like the person you're impersonating.**  
** R:** Well, while we're putting things on the record, I'd like to register an objection because that last clause was presented as fact when it should rightfully be acknowledged as mere opinion, and a spiteful one at that. But yeah, I was proud of that joke. It was the first one I wrote for the show.

**B: Really? I never knew that.**  
** R:** It's also not true. I never saw _Brokeback Mountain_ in the cinema, I threw up after watching Jude Law in _The Holiday_ on my couch but I wanted to seem sophisticated so I changed it.

**B: I've never seen _The Holiday_ but I think admitting that to you will quickly remedy the situation.**  
** R:** Oh fuck, yes, of course it will! We're only weeks away from holiday season, I'll bring the cocoa and my beloved Blu-ray over on the weekend.

**B: Deal.**  
** R:** Do you have anything like that?

**B: What, a crush on Jude Law? Doesn't everyone?**  
** R:** Haha, dickweed, very smart. I mean, a story or a situation which didn't make sense to you at the time but then, looking back after some breakthrough on your therapist's shoulder, you realise it was actually obvious?

**B: I must do, yeah, I mean, we have the same thing with memory issues stemming from trauma, so I often find myself doing things without understanding why, or having muscle memory without the situational knowledge to back it up. Apparently that's very common for childhood trauma. I guess my biggest thing was that I used to have dreams about long falls into cold water and I'd wake up feeling comforted without knowing why. Then, after we went back home in 2016, it was obviously a repressed memory from when we were delinquent teens jumping into the old quarry and it was just my subconscious trying to make me feel safe when my waking life was so stressful.**  
** R:** Jesus, that's heavy.

**B: Yeah, well, you asked.**  
** R:** You're meant to be interviewing me, not one-upping my tragic, homophobia-wridden upbringing! Fucking hell, Bev.

**B: It's a conversation between, not an interview with.**  
** R:** Tell that to my publicist.

**B: Fine! Well, what's your favourite song then?**  
** R:** Of all time or at the moment?

**B: Both.**  
** R:** Of all time, I'd say _Purple Rain_ by Prince but I'd be lying because it's _Your Type_ by Carly Rae Jepsen. But at the moment, _Summer Girl_ by Haim helps [my daughter] Molly get to sleep so that, I guess.

**B: Okay, favourite William Denbrough novel?**  
** R:** Oof, too broad a question! Which one to choose? So many. All of them. Everything. The one with the abandoned house on the cover.

**B: Good answer. Favourite snack?**  
** R:** Baked coconut chips.

**B: That is not what I was gonna guess.**  
** R:** I know, I'm so mad at myself for it, it's disgustingly healthy. What were you gonna guess?

**B: Truck nuts.**  
** R:** You're the worst.

**B: Thank you. Last quickfire! Dream Halloween costume?**  
** R:** Oh shit, I don't know, um... I think there's always a huge pressure on comedians at Halloween but I'm always pretty lazy about costumes.

**B: If you wanna do something elaborate, I'll help you get it together.**  
** R:** Okay, fergalicious, yeah, thanks. In that case, how about we go classic? 1939, _Wizard of Oz_, Dorothy.

**B: Yes! Deal. How comfortable are you with shaving your legs?**  
** R:** I'll ask my husband.

**B: Do you consciously do that? I remember when I first got married, it felt so weird to say 'my husband' but then I got used to it, and now it feels weird to say 'partner' or 'boyfriend' again.**  
** R:** Do I consciously say husband, you mean? Yeah, I guess I do. More to remind myself than to remind other people, but it does work as a good gauge of how someone's going to react to me in general. Like, if I say 'my husband' and they look all sour, I know I'm not gonna waste my time with them.

**B: Is it the same thing when you paint your nails?**  
** R:** Nah, that's so my daughter has some bigger canvases to practise her nail art on. I kinda have spades for hands, as you know.

**B: Yeah, yeah, nice try but that's still bragging.**  
** R:** Oh, I know. But yeah, no, the nails are just 'cause I want to, I think. I'm not a super feminine guy or anything, I had these dumb internalized notions that as soon as I came out, I'd start wanting to wear heels and eyeliner and those weirdly thin scarves, but turns out I still want to dress like a low-level weed dealer from the 80's. But now I paint my nails too because I'm not worried what'll happen if someone picked me up on it. I'm in this privileged position of being tall enough that no one wants to pick a fight with me, and also tired-looking enough that people assume I'm straight. Or, at least, straight people assume I'm straight. Which can be frustrating, but I know it makes me feel safer than gay guys who are more gender nonconforming.

**B: Did you think about all this stuff before you realised you came out or has there been more of an effort to stay on top of things because of your celebrity status?**  
** R:** In the interest of accuracy, I'd like to clarify that I've never topped anything in my life and I resent the accusation that I have.

**B: TMI, dude, this is gonna be published.**  
** R:** I know, but it's my job. And in answer to your question, I thought about it all the time, particularly in my thirties, I just wouldn't acknowledge why I was thinking about it. I thought I was just being thorough in vetting the jokes for my act, trying to get a grasp of nuance so I could understand what jokes I could make and what ones I couldn't, or which ones poked fun at victims rather than perpetrators. Now, I can see that that was horseshit. I thought about gay people all the time because I was gay. But I think about it differently now because, well, obviously I'm factoring myself into the equation too, but also because I'm thinking about everything in this more analytical lens now in order to get material for _Motherl*ver_, and for _Lighter_, too. Turns out stand-up and drama have a lot of overlaps.

**B: So you'd call _Lighter_ a drama? You've been really cagey with me about what it actually is.**  
** R:** I wanna surprise you when it comes out. I don't know if it's a drama. I think we're getting billed as a comedy because it's 30 minute episodes and there's jokes in it, but it's not a funny show overall. Or at least, not to me it's not. It's a dramadey? A tragicomedy? I don't think in terms of what's comedy, what's drama, what's farce, when we're working on it. I think that's the wrong way to go about storytelling.

**B: I think that's the wrong way to go about creativity in general. It's like with my work, I started stalling about a decade ago because I was just getting burnt out on trying to stay ahead of trends and work out what was happening in Milan in six months time, or what effect the Met Gala theme would have on that year's street fashion, or whatever, and it sucked. Like, it sucked to try and design that way, and it sucked as a business model and we started losing customers by the truckload. Now, I just try and work in a way that I enjoy and make clothes I would want to wear, or see other people wear, really. It's so much more rewarding.**  
** R:** So when are you starting a menswear line? I want to wear your suit to my next premiere.

**B: I'll see what I can do, but I just got an urgent request for a Dorothy costume from this pushy client, and I just know he's not gonna pay me for my work.**  
** R:** You'd never let me! If I tried to pay, you'd kick me in the shins.

**B: Yeah, I would. Seeing you in costume is gonna be reward enough.**  
** R:** What are you going as for Halloween then?

**B: Giselle from _Enchanted_ because I have a crush on Amy Adams.**  
** R:** Fair fucking play. Damn, can I change my costume? I want to be Prince Edward.

**B: Ben is absolutely going as Prince Edward already, and, unlike you, he can sing the songs.**  
** R:** Oof! Harsh but fair.

**B: Okay, last question then, and then we'll wrap up and get going to the costume lab.**  
** R:** Another seamless conversational transition from Marsh; however does she do it? You'll be getting the Pulitzer for this, I'm sure.

**B: Bite me, Tozier. My last question is this; what is the meaning of life?**  
** R:** Really?

**B: No, not really. Why is _Your Type_ by Carly Rae Jepsen your favourite song?**  
** R:** Well, why don't I see if I can do both. With the song, it's a threefold answer. One, it's got a banging music video. Two, because it's the best song on the most perfect album ever to have existed, _E•MO•TION_, you've heard it, right?

**B: Can't say that I have.**  
** R:** Jesus, Bev! Get on that!

**B: Okay, okay! What's the other reason?**  
** R:** The other reason is that it's just so fucking cathartic. Like, anyone who had a teenage crush they couldn't consummate for whatever reason, you're gonna feel what she's saying in your bones. And the music is even more than that, the actual melody and the synths and the drums! The only time my mind is quiet is when that song is playing.

**B: So what's the meaning of life then?**  
** R:** I think it's just to experience it. Like, the joy of listening to Miss Rae Jepsen's _E•MO•TION_, and the fear of returning to your home town, and the suadade of the sixth stage of grief, all of it. Now, with our daughter, we spend so much of our time worrying about her and how her life's gonna be and how she's gonna have things in her life she's gonna think she can't overcome. And I'm so fucking grateful to worry about that, to be here to worry about it with my husband and my friends. All the crap I went through to get here, it was all worth it. I think, for me at least, the meaning of life is the realisation that it's worth living. There you go, last question answered.

**B: Wow, Rich. That's... I didn't think you had it in you, honestly! I'm kidding, you're too clever for your own good, but man it feels weird to not automatically insult you.**  
** R:** Fuck, right? We've never talked this seriously in our lives! I kinda hate it.

**B: I actually didn't.**  
** R:** Nah, me neither.

Motherl*ver _is showing across the US and Canada until March 2020. To book tickets, visit [trashmouth.com/tour](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ). _Lighter_ is expected to air Summer 2020._

_This article was corrected on 30 October 2019, 1:53pm. A previous version of this article stated that Richie came out as gay, and was corrected to bisexual on Richie's request._

**Author's Note:**

> this formatting style is ripped wholecloth from the timothee chalamet in conversation with harry styles interview . would that i had a richie i-d photoshoot to accompany this . either way , i'm bad at plot and like writing dialogue so i really enjoyed doing this . if u didn't do it while reading , i'd really recommend clicking on the instyle award link near the beginning of the interview for an extra treat that i had a lot of fun writing .
> 
> no points for guessing that i stole a lot of richie's career and projects from a mishmash of bill hader and john mulaney's lives , which i know isn't exactly original but i don't know a lot about the career paths of american comedians so i'm just building on the what i got . i stole the carly rae jepsen thing from my dad though so go figure .
> 
> thanks for reading ! i can be found at [thisisagaysonlyevent.](https://www.thisisagaysonlyevent.tumblr.com) on tumblr for more it and bill hader shenanigans . please leave a comment letting me know what u think ! all the love and happy halloween x


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